James Michalopoulos (born 1951) is an American

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. He is best known for his colorful interpretations of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He has painted the landscape surrounding his home in

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

; cityscapes and street life in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

; and anthropomorphically rendered animals.

Personal life and education

James Michalopoulos, born James Mitchell, was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

in 1951. His father Demetrius Anastasiou Michalopoulos, a Greek immigrant, was an architect who helped shape the Pittsburgh downtown. He is also the nephew of

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

painter

William Baziotes William Baziotes (June 11, 1912 – June 6, 1963) was an American painter influenced by Surrealism and was a contributor to Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Greek parents Angelos and Stella, Baziotes w ...

, whose works filled his home. He attended and graduated from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794. The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...

. After graduating, he moved to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He lives and works primarily in New Orleans. He also has a home in

Burgundy, France Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former Regions of France, administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from ...

Work as a professional artist

Michalopoulos took art classes at the

New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts The New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts (NOAFA) is a private fine arts school located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1978, the academy offers instruction in traditional art disciplines, emphasizing classical techniques and working from l ...

and the

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a Public university, public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. First opened in 1958 as Louisiana State University in New Orleans, it is the largest public university and one of t ...

. He worked in Jackson Square as a street artist, drawing sketches of people in the square and drawing

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s of people for $2–3 each. Becoming tired of drawing portraits, he started traveling around the city with a portable

easel An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, painters traditionally use an easel to support a painting while they work on it, normally stan ...

, painting the

buildings and architecture of New Orleans A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted through ...

. He began selling his work in the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

He has served as the official artist of the

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...

six times, the most of any artist. Michalopoulos' collectible festival posters have featured

Dr. John Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. His music combined New Orleans blues, jazz, R&B, soul and funk. Active as a session mus ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

Mahalia Jackson Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel music, gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was ...

Fats Domino Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...

Allen Toussaint Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, descr ...

, and

Aaron Neville Aaron Joseph Neville (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer renowned for his distinctively smooth, vibrato-heavy tenor and a genre-crossing career that spans R&B, soul, gospel, jazz, country, and pop. He gained national prominence with hi ...

. Mchalopoulos started working in sculpture in the 2000s, working first in wood and later in steel. His abstract work, ''Mother Cluster,'' from 2012, is exhibited on

Veterans Memorial Boulevard Veterans Memorial Boulevard, formerly Veterans Highway (locally referred to as Vets or Veterans), is a 6-lane thoroughfare in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, U.S., and Orleans Parish, Louisiana, U.S., running west–east mostly parallel to Interstat ...

, in Metairie, Louisiana. ''Mother Cluster'' consists of three pieces of different sizes, up to 40 feet tall, and was funded by art collectors Henry and Pat Shane. The sculpture's estimated worth is $425,000. Michalopoulos' work is in the collections of the

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest art museum, fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans. It is situated within City Park (New Orleans), City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton ...

and the

Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is a museum dedicated to art by artists from the southern United States in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was established in 1999. The building The Ogden museum is located in the Warehouse Arts District of downtown ...

Process

It has been said that "there is perhaps no living artist more deeply tied in the mind of the public to the visual landscape of

than Michalopoulos."Sumrall, Bradley, ''Walzing the Muse'', Ogden Museum of Southern Art exhibition catalog, 2017 His oil paintings are colorful and feature "exaggerated viewpoints and skewed perspectives." He uses palette knives in his work, which helps provide intense color and texture. The subjects of his sculptures range from fish and fire hydrants to immense gestural studies of color and form in metal. Michalopoulos can complete an oil painting within two to three days. He leaves "completed" paintings in his studio for weeks and continues to add to paintings as he feels is necessary. Works are then sent to art galleries. At gallery openings, he has brought his palette to touch up paintings on the spot. When painting singer Aaron Neville, he used photographs of the singer to create the portrait painting titled ''Heart Song''. The painting was inspired by Neville's cover of

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

's "

Bird on the Wire "Bird on the Wire" is a song written by Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, which became one of his signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album '' Songs from a Room''. A May 1968 recording produced ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michalopoulos, James 1951 births 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Living people Businesspeople from Louisiana American drink distillers American abstract sculptors American landscape painters Painters from Pittsburgh Artists from New Orleans American Post-impressionist painters Bowdoin College alumni People from Burgundy (French region) 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Sculptors from Pennsylvania

Personal life and education

Work as a professional artist

Process

Further reading

References

External links